A standard brassiere comprises a pair of rearwardly open cups adapted to fit over the wearer's breasts and having inner edges that are connected together and outer edges from which extend wing straps that pass under the wearer's arms and around to the wearer's back where they overlay and are releasably joined together at a closure. A strap normally extends from the top of each cup over the respective shoulder of the wearer and is connected at the wearer's back to a top edge of the respective wing.
The standard closure is formed as a plurality of horizontally spaced vertical rows of eyes provided on an outer or back face of an end of one of the wings and a complementary vertical row of hooks on a front or inner face of the end of the other of the wings. The hooks are engaged in the eyes of one of the rows to fasten the two wing ends together. For comfort, the wings are typically made of an elastic textile, but the ends carrying the hooks and eyes are somewhat stiffer.
While the standard hook/eye closure is effective, it has several problems. The metallic hooks are themselves hard and can dig into the back of the wearer and get caught on other garments when the brassiere is laundered. The closure is also bulky so that it can be seen underneath tight clothing, creating an unattractive bump in the middle of the wearer's back. Finally, when longitudinal stress is applied pulling the two wing ends apart, the entire closure can curl, projecting out at its upper and lower edges and also at the outer edge of the back. Such curling deformation increases with tension and makes the already existing unattractive bump in the middle of the wearer's back even bigger.
Manufacture of the closure from various elements involves several assembly and fastening steps that increase the cost of the closure. They are typically stitched together and it is very difficult to provide stitching that perfectly matches the textile elements of the fastener, normally contrasting somewhat when the garment is new and always contrasting after some use.